Mishawaka adds to watershed study; 84 species revealed

-Elkhart biologist has monitored fish since 1998.

-Elkhart biologist has monitored fish since 1998.

January 01, 2008|SUE LOWE Tribune Staff Writer

No matter how many water samples employees with the sewer departments for Elkhart, Mishawaka and South Bend take, they're never going to know as much about conditions in the St. Joseph River as the fish that live in the water. "The fish are able to tell us the story," said Len Kring, aquatic biologist for the city of Elkhart. "They're in the water 24 hours a day, seven days a week." The city of Elkhart has been studying the fish species in the river and the rivers and streams that run into it since 1998. South Bend joined in 2001. And samples were taken in Mishawaka for the first time in 2007. His conclusion from sampling so far is that overall the quality of the St. Joseph River watershed is "pretty good." "Compared to 25 to 30 years ago, it's much better," he continued. "It's a lot better than a lot of people think." Kring said changes in the fish population alert scientists to areas where there might be a problem. The problem could be a pipe discharging something into the river. Or it could be the loss of the kind of habitat the fish like to live in. Kring is in the process of writing a report that probably will be released in May. He said that adding Mishawaka fills a hole in reports he wrote in the past. Kring will calculate an index of biotic integrity for the watershed. He uses 12 different sets of figures to calculate it. The simplest two are probably the total number of fish and the total number of species of fish. He has found 84 different species of fish in the watershed over the life of the study. Researchers found 71 of them in 2007, up from 68 in 2006.